SCORE CARD SHOWS HOW COMMUNITY COLLEGES FARE

Students can learn how schools do on transfer, grad rates

A web-based report card for California’s community colleges unveiled last week shows how the state’s 112 institutions are doing on various student success measurements such as graduation rates and transfer rates.

The Student Success Scorecard compares each college against its own past performance from data the colleges collect and report annually to the chancellor’s office.

It shows a range of information, including the percentage of students who attain a certificate or degree, the persistence rate of students who remain enrolled for three consecutive terms, and how many students complete 30 units — typically considered the halfway mark to transferring to a four-year institution.

On the website, the information shows one-year and five-year snapshots.

It also clearly outlines how important preparation for college is tied to future student success by comparing students who need to take remedial classes versus those who do not. It further indicates how well colleges are doing in moving students through remedial and job-training programs.

California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice Harris said the new set of performance metrics makes the community college system the most transparent and accountable of all public higher education institutions in the nation.

The score card was developed as part of a student success initiative that seeks to help increase the number of community college students who earn certificates and degrees and transfer to four-year schools.

Harris expects colleges will use the data to help improve student performance on their campuses and that parents and students will look to make comparisons as they are selecting institutions. He said the score card also could help colleges focus on closing performance gaps.

“The score card is seen as a way to have an institution work hard to improve itself,” he said.

Los Angeles Pierce College student Jerry Peralte said the score card would be a useful resources for students.

“It will help students like me who use the Internet to get college information make informed decisions about where to go in order to have the greatest chance of transferring to a four-year college as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

Constance Carroll, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, said it would be a useful tool for college administrators to track and measure student progress, especially since the data includes such factors as race, gender and age.

That information can help identify which students would benefit from programs such as summer “bridge” sessions, where students receive remedial help before starting classes in the fall, or participating in learning communities that group first-year students together, Carroll said.

“The groups of students can be subdivided in almost any way so that very specific strategies can be used to ensure their improvement,” he said. “The big issue for us is knowing who the students are, how they fare, so we can actually match our services to where they happen to be.”

State officials said in the first five hours the site was live, the website received 17,000 page hits.

Foothill-De Anza Community College District Chancellor Linda Thor, who participated in a conference call about the launching of the site, said the online posting created “considerable conversation” on her campus, as people looked at the student success markers.

“What is important is that this conversation about student success is based on data, not on anecdote,” she said.

Cindy Miles, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, said the report card was designed as an internal accountability tool and would help show what programs are successful and should be expanded.

“It is a nice display of the data,” Miles said. “I think it is another step in the right direction to keep our focus on what’s most important, and that’s student success.”